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Patriot Act Renewal Action Happening Fast: See What's Coming Up

Set to expire at the end of May, Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act is only one of a number of authorities the government uses to defy the 4th Amendment and spy on millions of Americans without a direct warrant. Nevertheless, its upcoming sunset date provides defenders of liberty a strong chance to make serious move back towards our founders’ intention that:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Unfortunately, government is ever loathe to give up any power once used. Both Republican leadership and the Obama administration appear to agree that unlimited authority to spy on U.S. citizens without probable cause is worth defending vigorously.

House Republicans are at least acknowledging the need for reforms to Section 215 by releasing a new bill shortly that promises to be an update to the USA FREEDOM Act that passed last year. However, last year’s bill was gutted at the last second, leading privacy advocates (including FreedomWorks) and even many of the bill’s main sponsors to withdraw their support. We strongly hope that the renewed USA FREEDOM Act contains much stronger privacy defenses than last year.

Whether or not the House bill contains adequate protections against warrantless spying when it is introduced (likely next week), there will be a crucial opportunity to make it even stronger. It is likely that members of the Judiciary committee will offer amendments which would greatly strengthen the bill and would perhaps even attempt to rein in other laws that the government uses to justify mass surveillance of its citizens.

Stay tuned – defenders of the Constitution in the House Judiciary Committee may need your voice to be heard when this new bill comes up for approval – perhaps this Thursday.

UPDATE The House Judiciary Committee is marking up the USA Freedom Act this Thursday, April 30. Representatives Ted Poe and Zoe Lofgren have introduced an amendment to stop the bulk collection of electronic records (emails, web browser histories, etc) under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. This amendment would be a truly significant surveillance reform, and you can call members of the Judiciary Committee HERE to tell them to support the Poe/Lofgren amendment.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has bypassed normal Senate procedure in order to fast-track a bill that does not even pretend to reform NSA surveillance. In fact, the new bill, S. 1035, would merely reauthorize Section 215 for 5 years.

McConnell needs to hear from his fellow Republican senators that his new long-term reauthorization of Section 215 is an affront to constitutional rule of law and basic civil liberties. You can call key senators and tell them to oppose McConnell's bill below:

America is in a paradoxical situation regarding personal and private intrusion by national and local government agencies. While it is true most citizens want police to respond promptly to distress calls, few are aware that there are instruments of surveillance that do indeed threaten civil liberties.

FreedomWorks has joined the Sunlight Foundation and Demand Progress in publishing a coalition letter in support of the Massie amendment to stop warrantless spying on American citizens. The letter is signed by 26 organizations from across the political spectrum.

After sometimes-dramatic and often-tense several weeks, the USA Freedom Act finally passed the Senate. The act’s passage brings the government’s telephone data surveillance program under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act back from its brief retirement, but with reforms that stop its worst abuses. Although the USA Freedom Act was certainly not the level of reform that many had hoped for, it passage nevertheless sent a clear signal that the days of Congress simply rubber-stamping endless surveillance programs are over.

As one of our over 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote NO on the McConnell amendment #1452, which would remove a crucial transparency section from the USA Freedom Act.

The Inspector General of the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed in a report released on Thursday that spying powers claimed under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act has "not identified any major case developments" through the controversial statue. The report covers a three-year period between 2007 through 2009 and notes that the nation's top domestic law enforcement agency tripled its use of Section 215 requests beginning in 2004.

On Sunday, the Senate will vote on reauthorizing Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the controversial section that allows the bulk collection of telephone metadata. Actually, it doesn’t allow it, according to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, but everyone is still acting like it does and framing the debate accordingly.

UPDATE: Senator Paul is standing firm on his promise to hold out for better surveillance reforms. Since Senator McConnell has thus far shown no indication that he will allow the amendment votes that Rand has asked for, there is a good chance that Section 215 of the Patriot Act will be allowed to expire Sunday night.

Yesterday, Senator Rand Paul proved yet again that he is dedicated to upholding the Constitution. For eleven hours, the Kentucky Senator claimed the senate floor to filibuster the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, which permits mass surveillance of American citizens. Warrantless spying and bulk data collection has been a massive infringement on our basic fourth amendment rights. Even 65% of American adults believe there are not adequate limits on the telephone and internet data that the government collects, according to a recent Pew poll.